Sunday, 20 May 2012

Chocolate fudge birthday cake

It is Mr CC’s birthday
and time for one of his ‘challenges’ that only serve to prove what a hopeless
cake decorator I am!This year he wanted
a chocolate cake (hurrah!I can do that!)
in the shape of Domo (shi....I mean sugar!).Now Domo is quite a straightforward looking chap...but it’s always the
simple characters that are the hardest to get right as there’s nowhere to hide.

Carving is not my forte:

Domois an international
phenomenon with a range of merchandise to rival Hello Kitty. He is the mascot for a Japanese television
station. If you haven’t come across him,
this is what he looks like:

I chose a rich chocolate
sponge and this recipe in particular interested me because of the sheer amount
of chocolate and cocoa it contains. It
is quite dense almost like a sponge/brownie hybrid – a heavy, but very
flavoursome cake. The addition of sour
cream works well and adds a tang to the flavour and stops the whole texture
being too cloying.

The chocolate fudge icing
couldn’t be simpler – only three ingredients!
Not that you can see much of it, because Mr CC hinted that chocolate
sprinkles might replicate Domo’s fur...hence the whole tube of chocolate
sprinkles covering the cake! The icing
is a little unconventional and I need to point out how ugly it is when
cooled. Here it is just made and needing
to cool (nice):

Here it is cooled and
rather icky looking:

Here it is lovely and
beaten and ready to spread on the cake.What I’m trying to convey is don’t lose heart and think you’ve done
anything wrong when it’s cooled:

This cake is rich – I’d
recommend serving it with some cream to lighten it. It is also more chocolatey than chocolate; a
boast I don’t make lightly (I’d hate you to take me at my word and then be
disappointed). Serve in small
slices...this is one to savour!

As it was a cake for Mr
CC’s birthday, I didn’t want him to see it before it was finished. I therefore had to delegate the final
inspection to Domo Nerd:

If you don’t want a Domo
cake (why wouldn’t you?????) then simply make this cake in a traybake tin and
serve that way. If you are making it
like that then maybe halve the icing amounts, as I needed extra to cover the
sides of Domo!

Grease a 30cm x 20cm traybake tin. I actually used a 27cm square disposable foil
tin as, once I cut a strip of cake off to make the arms, it left me with a
better Domo shape!

Put the chocolate, butter, sugar and hot water into
a large saucepan and gently melt together, stirring frequently.

Once melted and combined remove from the heat and
leave to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Stir in the soured cream and the eggs.

Transfer the mix to a stand mixer, or a bowl
suitable to use an electric whisk in, and add the flour and cocoa.

Beat just until the ingredients are combined. (NB. I
tried to incorporate the flour and cocoa in the pan using a balloon whisk but
it was just too heavy and clumpy for my feeble arms to manage – hence the stand
mixer)

Pour into the prepared tin – it will be runny – and
bake for approximately an hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes
out almost clean. I’d check the cake
after 50 minutes as all ovens are different.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

When the cake is cool you can make the icing: Place
all the ingredients in a bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water.

Leave the ingredients to melt, stirring
occasionally.

Remove from the saucepan and leave to cool; you may
need to chill it to get it to a spreadable consistency.

If your icing looks a bit gloopy and unspreadable,
put it in your stand mixer and beat it for a couple of minutes – this gets the
texture just right for spreading.

Either spread the icing over the top of your
traybake, or use to completely cover your Domo!

Wow, just wow! You definitely do yourself down, that's a fabulously decorated cake, I'd be chuffed to bits if I'd done that! Great likeness, and I love your little soft toy too. I hadn't seen Domo before but will look out for him now. Love the look of that fudgy cake and I'd not seen icing made that way before - I'll have to try it. Glad you showed pictures of it looking dodgy - I'd definitely assume I'd done something wrong if mine looked like that!

Your carving and decorating skills are brilliant. I would be exceptionally proud if I managed to pull off something as good as that. And the cake looks like my kind of cake, I like it dense and rich. Have to say I've never heard of Domo before, but whatever ....!

Domo is not my type of guy! What an ugly little creature he is. Leaving him aside, "more chocolatey than chocolate" ! I really, really like the sound of this! Maybe this is the cake I will make for the Jubilee weekend. I've already laid in stock the Jubilee special loose tea blend to go with it!

Hey! Surprisingly enough, this time it wasn't me who benefited from your recipe (well, I did, but we'll get to that in a moment). A few days ago my sister asked for my advice - she wanted to bake her friend a chocolate birthday cake in the shape of a curled up cat. I thought that this cake was probably dense enough to hold its shape after sculpting/modelling and covering with icing, so I sent her the link. She complimented the cake on its serious chocolati-ness and called it "an instant blues reliever" (my husband jokingly called it "chocolate pretending to be cake"). And the best thing? When I visited her on Sunday, I was presented with a tupperware container full of cake trimmings that got discarded during modeling. The cake is insanely addictive. Lighter than a brownie and more crumbly (oh so crumbly!), but at the same time so soft and smooth. With a good carton of milk, I could probably eat all those leftovers by myself. Thanks for posting!

Did you know that the recipe you used as icing is what we serve at children's parties in Brazil rolled into a small ball and covered with chocolate sprinkles? There are many variations of this "fudge": condensed milk and butter alone, replacing the chocolate with 1/2 package of strawberry gelatin, or with peanuts, or with coconut... Even with grated cheese! Anyways, loved your cake, and your blog!

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